Back to Basics

As freedom and individuality are crushed throughout the Middle East under the weight of Sharia law, Barack Obama opts to bow and grovel at the feet of Islamic dictators with whom he seeks to “build bridges.” Comity with such people is paramount. In contrast, human rights abuses among the common people of those regions are inconsequential. Or worse, as was the case in Iran after thug leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad secured his electoral victory through highly dubious means, the concerns and complaints of the people become a distraction and hindrance to Obama’s fawning diplomatic overtures, at which point he turns a blind eye to the mass state oppression of their dissenting voices.

On this side of the Atlantic, things are rapidly deteriorating towards the same dismal condition. And it is becoming increasingly apparent that the Administration has no interest in upholding or protecting the basic rights previously enjoyed by Americans, as evidenced by Attorney General Eric Holder’s willingness to allow voter intimidation by New Black Panther members in Philadelphia to go unpunished, despite incontrovertible evidence of their criminal actions. The definition of “crimes” and any resulting government involvement in pursuing them as such will henceforth be determined by their potential for gaining liberal political advantage and not by some simplistic and blind devotion to justice.

As an inevitable result, Americans increasingly find themselves subjected to third-world style injustice, including false accusations of wrongdoing based not on the written law, but on the twisted premises of “political correctness,” which will ultimately overshadow any effort to restore fairness and integrity to the legal system. The latest effort by the Obama White House to humiliate and impugn the good people of Arizona, this time on the world stage, cannot be interpreted in any other manner.

Were the United Nations merely feckless and inept, the monstrous sums of money bestowed to it by the United States government would still be indefensible. Yet over the years it has degenerated into something far worse than a mere roundtable of babbling “diplomats.” Corruption and hypocrisy run rampant in its midst, with emissaries from brutal and corrupt dictatorships often chiding the civilized world, and the United States in particular, over supposed infractions of imaginary standards of decency in dealing with the human condition.

The arrangement was abhorrent in the past, as U.S. presidents attempted to deflect such criticism while maintaining what they vainly believed was the proper degree of American support and presence in the organization. But with the advent of the Obama Administration, the situation has grown far worse. Now, instead of defending the United States against this gaggle of leftist and their third-world nattering, Barack Obama invokes their disdain as a means of debasing this nation, thus validating their accusations and condemnation.

His latest betrayal of the nation came with the State Department’s submission of its “Report to the UN Council on Human Rights” on August 27. In this document, the Administration attempts to make the case that its opposition to Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070 constitutes an effort to restore human rights in the Grand Canyon State. Conversely, the effort by Arizona to stem the invasion of illegal aliens from Mexico must be presumed as an infringement and abuse of those rights.

Reality has long ago been driven far from the entire illegal immigration debate. Whereas throughout the rest of the world, flagrant and horrific abuses of human rights have occurred against oppressed citizens at the hands of their own imperious governments, which have often forcibly and violently prevented them from escaping from their control, the ostensible “victims” of the Arizona law are attempting to unlawfully enter and remain within the purview of this nation, facing at worst, the potential for eviction from its borders.

Arizona vs. the U.N. human rights police
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010

An indignant President Obama complained last week, “I can’t spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead.” Fine. How about plastering a copy of his presidential oath of office there instead? The kowtowing commander-in-chief is in dire need of a daily reminder that his job is to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” — not international law or global diktats.

Case in point: Last week, Obama’s State Department handed in America’s first-ever report to the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights in conjunction with something called the “Universal Periodic Review.” In short, the 29-page document (pdf) is a self-aggrandizing report card touting the administration’s far-left domestic and foreign policy initiatives for the world’s approval. The report boasts of racial- and gender-bean-counting in the executive branch; Justice Department outreach to Muslim grievance groups opposed to post-9/11 security measures; teachers’ union payoffs in the federal stimulus law; continuing commitment to closing the Gitmo detention facility for enemy combatants; and the illusory lifesaving effects of Obamacare on minorities through “expanding community health centers” (which have yet to be built, but not that it matters in our Nobel Peace Prize-winning president’s age of post-achievement).

The report also includes a section on “values and immigration,” which essentially singles out Arizona’s immigration enforcement law as a human rights deficiency “that is being addressed in a court action.”

In response, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer rightly blasted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration for succumbing to “internationalism run amok.” Brewer pointed out in a letter to Clinton, “Human rights as guaranteed by the United States and Arizona Constitutions are expressly protected in S.B. 1070 and defended vigorously by my Administration. In fact, the Department of Justice has correctly not included these so-called ‘human rights’ issues in the current litigation against the State of Arizona.” Somehow, that inconvenient detail escaped the Foggy Bottom bureaucrats’ notice.

No one should be surprised, of course, that the Department of Blame America First is prostrating itself before the likes of repressive U.N. Human Rights Council members Libya, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China. No one should be surprised that Obama’s globalist panderers couldn’t simply keep their mouths shut and refrain from trashing Americans with whom they disagree. In May, you’ll recall, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner preemptively trashed our country’s human rights record to Chinese government officials and humiliated Arizonans — and all Americans — who support states’ rights to protect their borders and enhance their security through strict immigration enforcement. An obsequious Posner called S.B. 1070 “a troubling trend in our society” in his bow-and-scrape conversations with the ChiComs.

“Gosh, maybe if we were only nice to Castro,” goes the liberal mantra on Cuba.

In fact, the U.S. elite’s fetish for “engagement” with Fidel Castro began before he was even in “office.”
“Me and my staff were all Fidelistas.” (Robert Reynolds, the CIA’s “Caribbean Desk’s specialist on the Cuban Revolution” from 1957-1960.)

“Everyone in the CIA and everyone at State was pro-Castro, except [Republican] ambassador Earl Smith.” (CIA operative in Santiago Cuba, Robert Weicha.)

Their advice was taken, and January 7, 1959, thus marks a milestone in U.S. diplomatic history. Never before had the State Department extended diplomatic recognition to a Latin American government as quickly as they bestowed this benediction on Fidel Castro’s that day.

Nothing so frantically fast had been bestowed upon “U.S.-backed” Fulgencio Batista (note the obligatory prefix, used in every MSM and “scholarly” mention of him) seven years earlier. Batista had in fact been punished by a U.S. arms embargo and heavy diplomatic pressure to resign for a year. Batista was subsequently denied exile in the U.S. and not even allowed to set foot in the country that “backed” him.

In fact, during Castro’s first sixteen months in power, the U.S. State Dept. made over ten back-channel diplomatic attempts to ascertain the cause of Castro’s tantrums and further “engage” him. Argentine President Arturo Frondizi was the conduit for many of these and recounts their utter futility in his memoirs. 

Result: In July 1960, Castro’s KGB-trained security forces stormed into 5,911 U.S.-owned businesses in Cuba and stole them all at Soviet gunpoint — $2 billion was heisted from outraged U.S. businessmen and stockholders. Not that all Americans surrendered their legal and hard-earned property peacefully. Among some who resisted where Bobby Fuller, whose family farm would contribute to a Soviet-style Kolkhoze, and Howard Anderson, whose profitable Jeep dealership was coveted by Castro’s henchmen. Both U.S. citizens were murdered by Castro and Che’s firing squads.

Sensing the political failure of the Left’s environmental whacko agenda of raising energy costs to cap emissions of a gas we all exhale and that plants need to thrive — carbon dioxide — President Barack Obama has instructed his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to rewrite its Clean Air Act and give itself authority it doesn’t have.

Thankfully, one state is resisting: Texas.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbot and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Chairman Bryan W. Shaw call the EPA’s actions an illegal power grab and in a letter to the EPA they wrote:

“In order to deter challenges to your plan for centralized control of industrial development through the issuance of permits for greenhouse gases, you have called upon each state to declare its allegiance to the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently enacted greenhouse gas regulations — regulations that are plainly contrary to U.S. laws… To encourage acquiescence with your unsupported findings you threaten to usurp state enforcement authority and to federalize the permitting program of any state that fails to pledge their fealty to the Environmental Protection Agency. On behalf of the State of Texas, we write to inform you that Texas has neither the authority nor the intention of interpreting, ignoring or amending its laws in order to compel the permitting of greenhouse gas emissions.”

In an Op-Ed piece in today’s The Washington Times, Texas state director of Americans for Prosperity Peggy Venable writes that:

Federalist principles have allowed Texas to become the strongest state in the union. The Lone Star State leads the nation in job creation, is the top state for business relocation and has more Fortune 500 companies than any other state and is the top state for wind generation. President Obama said he wants to double U.S. exports in five years; he could look to Texas, as we are the top exporting state in the country. The Obama administration could learn a lot from Texas.

Instead, it is attempting to ride roughshod over Texas, and it goes beyond the greenhouse-gas issue.

After 16 years of allowing Texas to run its own permitting program to meet Federal air-quality standards, in May the EPA announced the state was not in compliance with Federal regulations. This despite the fact that Texas had met or exceeded its clean air obligations the entire time.

The Obama administration’s agenda is simple: Grab more and more power from the States and consolidate it under the Federal government. Thankfully, Texas will have no part of it.

If only the other 49 States will follow Texas’ lead.

What do “global warming,” “global governance” and “sustainable development” have to do with the proposed “Ground Zero mosque?” One would think absolutely nothing; however investigation into the money, organizations and people behind the project has uncovered some revealing and disturbing connections.  An extensive analysis of these findings provides the missing insight into the larger agenda, motives and modus operandi associated with what is now known as the Park51project. It also reveals the reasons behind the persistence of the insipid and insulting project and why it remains viable in the face of such visceral opposition.

Those who oppose the construction of an Islamic center in close proximity to Ground Zero are legitimately upset by the hubris of Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf and his associates, and his lack of class and sensitivity exhibited by their insistence to continue forward despite the plaintive objections of those most affected and victimized by the terrorist attacks. Some in opposition appear perplexed that the individuals behind the project have not relented or even acquiesced to open dialogue about moving the Islamic center due to the volatility created by the project. To date, overtures made by the governor of New York as well as members of the clergy have been quietly rebuffed by the people behind the project. If building bridges and fostering goodwill is, in fact, their objective, it is reasonable to question their reluctance and outright refusal to mitigate any ill will by reconsidering the location of the Islamic center. For the purpose of a comprehensive investigation, it is not only reasonable, it is imperative.

Opposition to the Islamic center to date has been limited to information that is known or has been most easily uncovered about Imam Abdul-Rauf and the Cordoba Initiative. That Abdul-Rauf has suggested that the 9/11 attacks were a result of American foreign policy and his refusal to characterize Hamas as a terrorist organization should themselves be sufficient reasons to cause any person of reasonable sensibilities to oppose the construction, especially at this location. Yet, those behind the project, as well as those in support of the project do not appear to be adversely affected and remain undeterred. Once again, it is an investigative imperative to determine why.

Despite such obviously controversial positions, Abdul-Rauf presses forward with the approval of political leaders from Barack Hussein Obama to Michael Bloomberg. Together with many in the corporate media, project supporters deflect from the core issue into a specious constitutional argument relating to freedom of religion, despite the fact that no one is preventing Islam from being practiced in the United States. The issues are even further diluted and deflected by those who insist that the project is neither a mosque nor will it be located at Ground Zero. While both assertions might be considered technically accurate in the eyes of Western thought and culture, they are nothing more than frivolous defenses at best and intellectual deception at worst.

Those who espouse such defenses either fail to understand or deliberately refuse to address the iconic Islamic symbolism behind the “9/11 Victory Mosque.” That the planned venture is technically outside of the footprint of the former World Trade Center complex is offered as a legitimate defense, which might hold true if one is to be so myopic as to disregard the Muslim world view.  Perhaps that is the reason for the project makeover that began with the changing of the name from the Cordoba House to Park 51. It is not a likely coincidence that once the symbolic nature of Cordoba became more widely known, those behind the project opted to promote a more secular version of the initiative, while concurrently expunging certain elements relating to Islamic Shariah law from their web site.

Despite the plentiful amount of information developed by independent researchers, bloggers, and commentators that has been published about the questionable associations of project front man ABDUL-RAUF over the last few weeks, he continues to travel to the Middle East as an emissary of America at the behest of the Obama/Clinton State Department. Ostensibly, his purpose is to “discuss Muslim life in America and religious tolerance” with Islamic leaders in Muslim countries.  Despite his questionable associations, the U.S. State Department is steadfast in their support of his goodwill tour.

Not only is the U.S. State Department unwavering in their support in spite of such controversy, they are invoking an unprecedented shroud of secrecy over the trip. When questioned about the content and message of Abdul-Rauf’s goodwill tour, U.S. State Department Spokesman Phillip Crowley curiously cited a 62 year-old law, erroneously claiming that the law shields Rauf’s message from the American public – at least by way of government web sites – as cited in this article published Tuesday by the editor of Family Security Matters.

In my last paper, I showed that Our Constitution requires that the federal government’s lawsuit against Arizona and Gov. Brewer be tried in the supreme Court; and that federal district court judge Susan Bolton has no constitutional authority to preside over the trial.

But many responded that the case is properly before Judge Bolton because Congress & the supreme Court have said that cases where a State is a Party may be tried in federal district court.

Thus we come to The Pivotal Question of Our Time: Will we restore the Rule of Law, which prevails when people in the federal government obey The Constitution? Or will we side with those who seek to expand the Rule of Men, where people holding Power do whatever they want?

1. The Federalist Papers were written during 1787-88 by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay to explain the proposed Constitution to The People and to induce them to ratify it. Thus, The Federalist is the most authoritative commentary on the genuine meaning of Our Constitution.  And at a meeting of the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia on March 4, 1825 at which Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were present, the following resolution selecting the texts for the Law school, was passed:

…on the distinctive principles of the government of our own state, and of that of the US. the best guides are to be found in 1. the Declaration of Independence, as the fundamental act of union of these states. 2. the book known by the title of `The Federalist’, being an authority to which appeal is habitually made by all, and rarely declined or denied by any as evidence of the general opinion of those who framed, and of those who accepted the Constitution of the US. on questions as to it’s genuine meaning…. (page 83)  [emphasis added]

So! Thomas Jefferson, Author of the Declaration of Independence, and James Madison, Father of The Constitution, acknowledged the high authoritative status of The Federalist Papers.  They saw The Constitution as having a fixed meaning which one could learn by consulting The Federalist!

2. But supreme Court judges soon refused to submit to The Constitution as explained by The Federalist Papers. In 1907, former Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes said, “…the Constitution is what the judges say it is…”.  Judges thus rejected the objective standard provided by The Federalist, and substituted their own subjective interpretations. Law schools embraced this subversion:  Instead of teaching The Constitution as a set of fixed principles explained by The Federalist, they taught supreme Court opinions which say Congress may do whatever it pleases. They also taught that supreme Court judges have unbridled authority to say what the Constitution means. Law schools thus produced generations of constitutionally illiterate lawyers & judges who have been indoctrinated with the monstrous Lie that Our Constitution means whatever judges on the supreme Court say!  And because these lawyers failed in their sacred duty to think, and uncritically accepted what they were told, Our Country is on the brink of destruction.

Roger Pilon of the Cato Institute understands this pivotal issue. He said:

Is it unconstitutional for Congress to mandate that individuals buy health insurance or be taxed if they don’t? Absolutely—if we lived under the Constitution. But we don’t. Today we live under something called “constitutional law”—an accumulation of 220 years of Supreme Court opinions—and that “law” reflects the Constitution only occasionally.

Now you see how we came to this state where lawyers insist on a view of Art. III, §2 which is, to the eye of reason, contrary to The Constitution: They don’t obey The Constitution – they obey the supreme Court, as they were trained in law school to do.

3. Let us review Art. III, §2:

In contradiction to the US Constitution’s First Amendment referencing the prohibition of the US government’s establishment of a State religion, the Obama has decided to institute Islam’s “religion” Muslimism as the US’ first state-sponsored religion. As Islam is first and foremost a governmental/political system — with the “faithful” following its feudal tenets with Muslim worship of Allah — I suspect that the final overthrow of the US government’s Republic will be very soon. And, STILL no one is stopping the tyrant.

Why do I make these claims? Let’s take a look at what the dictator is now affecting. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf is the radical cleric who is spearheading the establishment of the 9/11 Islamic Victory Mosque (and suspected terrorist training center) at ground zero. Rauf is also the Imam sponsored by the Obama government’s State Department (paid for by the US taxpayer) to engage in a fundraising tour of Muslim countries for the Ground Zero Victory Mosque. Suffice it to say, this is illegal under the United States Constitution, as the tyrant is now effectively sponsoring Islam as the official “religion” if not governmental system of the soon-to-be-if-we-don’t-stop-him former United States of America.

No US President has sponsored a state-run religion. But, Islamist Usurper-and-Dictator-in-Chief Barack Hussein Obama has now done so. Interestingly, since the Obama seizure of the White House, Muslims are allowed to pray when and where they will, while Christians are denied prayer or even the mention of Jesus more and more. This is what Islam does. It replaces and dominates, conquers and crushes every other religion and government system. And it now has a friend and fellow Muslim in the White House. Obama celebrates the Islamic holiday of Ramadan while shunning the Christian National Day of Prayer. At The Obama’s speeches from the White House, there are now fewer and fewer times that the United States flag is present. Note: Other than itself, Islam recognizes no form of government or national sovereignty. Islamic Shari’a law is already being established on the State, if not federal, court level and new Obama SCOTUS Associate Justice Elena Kagan supports it.

Aiding and abetting the Obama & Co criminal enterprise, the mainstream press (aka the ObamaMedia) largely refuses to report on any of these treasonous (that’s High Treason) actions. And it appears that the now being-replaced-by-only-Obama & Co Congressional members don’t care that they’re been pushed aside, as long as they can continue to steal from We-the-People and enrich themselves. After OUR country has been destroyed and Americans are in the chains of slavery (either figurative or literal), We-the-People will have no more power over our own lives. And Dhimmitude (the Islamic system of subjugating, controlling and extraordinarily taxing non-Muslim populations) will have been firmly established. Historically, Islam was heavily involved with the African slave-trade and still practices it, today, in both Sudan and Mauritania. Like Marxism, Islam is a patently feudal system. The rulers (Imams in Islam) are at the top and the serfs (the people) are at the bottom. There is little-to-nothing in-between; hence Obama’s obsession with the destruction of the US middle class.

Again, either We-the-People wake up fully to what is happening to our country and way of life and end the tyranny that is already upon us, or prepare ourselves for death or imprisonment. This is the truth and reality that the leftist media still refuse to report. And until they are directly and adversely affected, they won’t. It’s our choice. Do we fight or submit? That’s all that we have remaining, folks — that choice and prayer. Oh and by the way, the shout of “Allah Akbar” does not mean “God is great.” Rather, it means “Our God is greater [than yours].” Still think they worship the same God as do Jews and Christians? Better think again.

The Ground Zero Mosque — What Have We Not Been Told?:
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.7079/pub_detail.asp

Obama’s State Department Bankrolls Ground Zero Imam Rauf’s Middle East Fundraising Tour:
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/08/obamas-state-department-bankrolls-ground-zero-imam-raufs-middle-east-fundraising-tour-us-muslim-enga.html

Having written for a decade that the Earth has been cooling, it was rather disconcerting to receive a news release from Accuweather reporting that “The year 2010 is on track to become the hottest year on record since modern record keeping began, according to climate researchers at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).”

It turns out there is an explanation for the unusual levels of heat from Russia to Pakistan to Japan. It is a meteorological phenomenon called “blocking events” and they are related to the jet stream.

An August 10 article by Michael Moore in New Scientist explained, “According to meteorologists monitoring the atmosphere above the northern hemisphere, unusual holding patterns in the jet stream are to blame. As a result, weather systems sat still. Temperatures rocketed and rainfall reached extremes.”

The public has been buffeted for decades as the global warming fraud produced reams of reports that the Earth was heating dramatically. It wasn’t. In November 2009, the “Climategate” scandal broke, revealing that the data put forth by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was rigged, false, a scam.

A handful of rogue climatologists working together from East Anglia, England, to Penn State University provided deliberately false information. At the time their private emails were leaked they were seriously worried because a natural cooling cycle had begun in the late 1990s.

Thus, while news of 2010 being potentially one of the hottest years since 1880 seems to give new life to the discredited global warming claims, it doesn’t.

The New Scientist article further explained that, “Renowned for its influence on European and Asian weather, the jet stream flows between 7 and 12 kilometers above ground. In its basic form it is a current of fast-moving air that bobs north and south as it rushes around the globe from west to east.”

Doug Powers gave you the heads-up last month about the First Lady’s lavish Spanish adventure. She touched down yesterday with her youngest daughter, dozens of friends, and phalanx of government bodyguards in tow. The luxury resort of Marbella rejoiced — and our hapless State Department blanched — as she embarked on her first “walkabout” clad in a one-shoulder Jean Paul Gaultier top:

The Obama administration faced an embarrassing diplomatic blunder today after it was forced to pull a warning about racism in Spain – just as the First Lady arrived in the country for a summer holiday.

Soon after touching down in the Costa del Sol yesterday morning, Michelle Obama was pictured taking in the sights of Marbella with daughter Sasha, nine, surrounded by a throng of bodyguards.

Staff at the U.S. State Department removed the contentious advice to travellers, which included the phrase ‘racist prejudices could lead to the arrest of Afro-Americans who travel to Spain,’ from its website on Monday.

She is on a four-day visit and will be staying at the five-star Villa Padierna, rated as one of the world’s top 30 hotels, with 40 friends. The party has reserved 60 rooms.

…Flags welcoming the Obama family were waving in the breeze as Marbella – often associated with reality TV and gangsters – geared up for their arrival.